The challenge:

Leadership teams regularly regroup on strategy -often annually- to determine directions and align a roadmaps and budgets for the following year. You are likely to do that too. You may have your preferred facilitator and settle into a routine of those annual exercises.

You set a BHAG (Big Hairy Ambitious Goal) as a target state for the business and work backwards to a plan. And for the next 12 months, you will likely get frustrated that you cannot execute the plan and give adequate focus to the strategy.

Eventually, the strategy is worthless because you are reacting to a changing landscape and firefighting the preservation of revenues for your business. Does that sound like the way strategy turns out in your business? 

Unfortunately, strategic approaches are still guided by mass production management paradigms. The world of strategy has evolved, however, in the past 20 years. Digital technology has brought globalisation, and computers and cloud technology have enabled flexible scaling. Small Startups can compete with major corporations very rapidly, creating a landscape for disruption.

In such an environment, opportunities are plenty for the smart players, and risks are continually emergent for the incumbents. It calls for agility, starting with refreshing your approach to strategy with Henko.

Henko's differentiated approach:

Our approach to strategy differs from the classic approaches in line with complexity thinking, digital challenges and the need for agility: 

• Organising a broader collaboration enables more voices to be heard so the constraints surface and are addressed. After all, a strategy that does not address constraints is, at best, wishful! 

• The participatory nature of the workshops also allows alignment to be built into the process. The strategy no longer needs to be communicated by the Executives repetitively; everybody is on board, everybody owns it, 

• Though we identify strategic 'vectors'(1) for directions, we anchor the strategy from the present conditions. This is as opposed to an idealistic future. This allows you to root strategy in reality, and, most importantly, get started,

• The lineage of strategy is mapped in a deployment tool based on connecting ambitions, breakthrough objectives, strategies, and execution, with measures and ownership at all levels. The tool enables a high level of coherence, which is necessary in strategy, 

• Rather than focusing on the endpoint, we focus on the strategy's starting point. The high-level execution is mapped to the teams that will own it, spotting bottlenecks immediately and collaboration needs, 

• Strategy in a fast-changing landscape requires new approaches. It needs to start in the present, follow vectors, deliver benefits early and offer affordance for change along the journey,

• We bring new tools and techniques such as xMatrix, Wardley Maps and Hexi Mapping, that support collaboration, create alignment, develop highly coherent strategies connected to their execution.

(1)  The concept of vectors in strategy is equivalent to vectors in mathematics. Vectors have a direction, and everybody will recognise the need for direction in strategy. Vectors also have a length, which is a useful consideration for strategy. By putting timeboxes around the strategies, you create flow and allow yourself to pivot when the circumstances change. Equally you may allow more time when an hypothesis demonstrates its potential.

Expected outcomes: 

The strategy off-sites bring collaboration across a leadership team at the C-suite or Business Unit levels or across change initiatives. They offer a starting baseline from a refreshed perspective. We highly recommend combining this offering with our Continuous Strategy Operating Model. 

From the off-site, you can expect: 

• Alignment of your team on the strategy direction with ownership and leadership, 

• A realistic strategy that mixes the ambitions and the resolution of the real constraints of your business (else, your strategy is only ever going to be wishful), 

• A tight and congruent lineage from ambitions to execution, with measures at all levels, 

• A starting point of execution and a realistic view of the load as the people that deliver the strategy are generally the same that attend to the BAU,

• A clear direction, yet the flexibility to adapt, change and pivot periodically as the landscape unfolds, 

• A congruent strategy on one page that you can equally present to the broader teams and your investors, and that will withstand scrutiny and challenge,

• Optionally, we can subsequently upload your strategy into an enterprise tool that allows ongoing reviews of the strategic progress from a virtual 'Obeya' (navigable strategic dashboards).

Testimonial:

" I was fortunate to ask Philippe to run a two-day off-site strategy session for our senior leadership team at i-nexus. As a CEO, bringing in an external facilitator can sometimes feel like a gamble, but it paid off tremendously with Philippe. We had two lively days; Philippe helped us set some context for our current position and future aspirations, using many different tools, one of which was Wardley Maps, which brought depth to our strategic vision and planning. 

What stood out most was Philippe's facilitation style—calm, reassuring, and thoroughly engaging. He encouraged participation, meaning all voices were heard (and valued), which I believe brought our team closer and meant the strategy was more robust. Philippe would challenge our assumptions and push to address obstacles, which resulted in a sound strategic planning experience.

We developed a clear, well-prioritised strategy tailored to our needs. A personal benefit of having Philippe lead the session was that it allowed me to participate fully and contribute without needing to guide the proceedings; I found this a refreshing change and added significant value to the discussions.

Philippe's professional yet approachable demeanour, coupled with his deep understanding of digital business transformation, makes him an obvious choice as a facilitator. I highly recommend Philippe to any organisation that is aiming to develop its strategic plan (new or an iteration) and begin the challenge of execution. "

Simon Crowther - CEO - i-nexus

Your next steps:

Although our strategy off-site follow a standard format, the engagement will vary based on the length, location, participants, and pre and post work. Therefore, please get in touch to discuss your requirements and we will design an off-site that will challenge your leaders and set alignment and new possibilities for your business.